£7bn 363 colleges 4.2m learners 263,257 staff

the consistent theme … that they can’t think of anything useful they’re good at. This contrasts starkly with young people who underpin their aspirations with personality traits that suggest they will be able to make a positive success of them. Something positive about them has stood out to the adults in their lives, and this gives them the confidence to make firm plans about their future

“I want to be a youth worker .. they told me I was really good at taking charge of groups and stuff and I’d be really good at it
[college student]

“wherever you’re gonna work, your not gonna like it … who wants to go to work – no-one”
[current NEET age 18]

Teachers aren’t about themselves, they are about other people.

Teaching isn’t about how the students feel about me, it is about how I can make them feel about themselves.

Learners in colleges don’t come into the sector as newbies – they have a lot of education experience behind them – and Ipsos Mori have already surveyed 2387 of them in 2008. 11-16 then, they are now 13-18, so their views will form the core of the 2009 college survey.

They were asked about the ways they prefer to learn, and what they do most often in class.